PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE MESSAGE PRESIDENT’S Coping ROBERT ROSBOROUGH
The Clean Slate Program article in this issue
wrench into the machinery of our everyday
of the Marin Lawyer opens with the follow-
lives, even for those who have avoided ill-
ing lines: “The world is tough to navigate. It is
ness and death among their friends and fami-
constantly changing, confusing, and often
ly. That wrench may have done less damage
overwhelming—and having a criminal convic-
to those of us privileged enough to work
tion on your record is a complexity multipli-
from home or with more resources to cope
er.” The barriers a criminal record erects to leading a productive life are enormous and
but it has added another layer of change, uncertainty, and complexity to our lives.
many of them are detrimental not just to the individual but to society as a whole. But I
Change, uncertainty, and complexity often go hand-in-hand and most of us find them
quote these lines not to write about criminal justice but to write about how tough the
challenging, sometimes even overwhelming.
world is to navigate for everyone, especially lately. Clearly, the pandemic threw an enormous
They have intruded into our lives at a time when many of us are already unsettled by the degree to which we see them happening in society. Change, of course, is often good.
THE MARIN LAWYER An Official Publication of the Marin County Bar Association
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